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From the Ancestry
Daily News
Michael John Neill 11/17/2004

Have You Looked at All Your Links?

How solid are all the links in your genealogical chain? The
links in your family tree tie two people together. These links are
usually relationship based and most of the relationships that records
establish are either parent-child ones or sibling ones. Have you gone
through your records (and more importantly your conclusions) to make
certain your links are as solid as they can be? Not every link can be
established with complete certainty, but some weak links may not be
actual links at all.

Previous columns have discussed my work on William Apgar, also
known as William Frame. William was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the
late 1880s and was living in the city as late as 1918. Census and
marriage records seem to indicate that the man who used the name
William Apgar beginning in 1909 was really born as William Frame, a
name used as late as 1910. That discussion will not be repeated here,
but the key item in our proof is a marriage record for William Frame
Apgar to Mary Demar in Chicago in 1909.

The known William Frame was born of English parents and had an
older brother born in England in 1863. This brother's 1925 death
certificate indicated he was born in Brampton, England, and that his
father, Thomas Frame, was born in Newcastle and his mother, Elizabeth
Watson, was also born in Brampton. I thought I was ready to start
working on the English portion of this lineage. I was excited.

But wait. When we get a little too excited, it is time to slow
down and think.

Before I spend significant time and money establishing the
English ancestry of the Frame and Watson families, I should make
certain I have established as best as I can that their son William
Frame is really William Apgar. There are additional records I should
search to make certain that the William Frame, son of Thomas and
Elizabeth Watson Frame, is the same William Frame Apgar who married
Mary Demar in 1909. Estate records for Thomas and Elizabeth Frame
should be accessed (or at least a diligent search should be made).

If there are no estate records, then I should determine if
Thomas and Elizabeth owned their house in Chicago. As mentioned in
previous columns, quitclaim deeds from the heirs after have been drawn
up if the parents still owned the property at the time of the parent's
death. These quitclaim deeds should mention all living heirs at the
time of the property transfer. Records of name changes at the county
level should also be accessed, but William's name change (if there was
one) might have been informal and never recorded. If these records
exist, they may answer my question about William Frame and William
Apgar.

City directories should also be searched to determine when
(and if) William Frame disappears. While searching these directories, I
should keep in mind that both William Frame and William Apgar
apparently worked at unskilled labor. Finding a William Frame or a
William Apgar in a city directory listed as a lawyer in the downtown
area probably means I do not have the same person. If my theory is
correct, William Frame should disappear about the same time William
Apgar appears.

Another source to search during this time frame is the World
War I draft cards. Once the index is completely posted at Ancestry.com,
I should search for William Frame. I already have the card for William
Apgar. If I find a card for a William Frame that matches the
information for the one who is the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Frame,
then my conclusions will have to be significantly altered.

There are ways to avoid making the wrong link and spending
time on the wrong lineage.

Are Your Conclusions Reasonable?Do you have to ignore laws of human behavior, geography,
or physics in order to make the story hold? Would your ancestor have
had to have traveled from Maryland to Ohio in two days in January of
1815 to make the situation work? Would the mother of your ancestor had
to have had ten children in eight years starting at the age of twelve
to make the data â€œfit?â€ Would your ancestor have
witnessed a deed at
the age of thirteen? If it smells a little fishy chances are the
conclusion warrants another look.

Have You Held Your Assumptions in Check?Are you assuming something about your ancestor (where he
was born, where he lived, etc.) that might be creating your brick wall?
Is there some cherished tradition that possibly might not be true?
Consider stripping your ancestor of every fact that you cannot prove
with some document or record. Then look at the other
â€œfacts.â€ Could
some of them be incorrect, at least partially?

Make a ChronologyA chronology is an excellent way to determine if all the
things that supposedly happened could actually have happened. This
organizational technique may allow you to see that the details do not
support the conclusion based upon time constraints.

Learn about RecordsHaving a general knowledge about all the records
available for the locale and time period of the research will better
equip you to obtain as much information as possible. Using only one or
two types or records because they are on the Internet or are easily
accessible may cause you to overlook significant information. Offline
and unindexed records can easily yield significant clues when they are
accessed.

Look at It from a Different PerspectiveIf you are having difficulty proving yourself right,
think about how you would prove yourself wrong.

Consider All Reasonable ScenariosAre there other situations that could fit the
information besides your conclusion? Remember that records generally
tell us only a small part of what was actually going on at the time the
record was created. Consider that there might be other interpretations
and then analyze these interpretations and contemplate how they could
be proven or disproven.

Ask Someone Else to Look at ItA different person has a different perspective. Perhaps
an online genealogical acquaintance or a fellow member of your local
genealogical society will give you a different interpretation of what
the records say.

Wrapping It UPIt is okay to get excited and do the happy dance. Just
remember that before the next installment of your research begins, you
might want to slow the music down so you don't stumble in the process
of continuing your research.

Michael John Neill is the Course I Coordinator at the
Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in
Springfield, Illinois, and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg
College in Galesburg, Illinois. Michael is the Web columnist for the
FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois State
Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures
on a wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and contributes
to several genealogical publications, including Ancestry Magazine
and Genealogical Computing. You can e-mail him at mjnrootdig@myfamily.com or
visit his website at www.rootdig.com/,
but he regrets that he is unable to assist with personal research.